Cornmeal Crusted Chicken Stuffed with Poblano and Cheddar

I’d been thinking about making my corn and pepper bisque again and the other day, I was walking in front of Whole Foods so I stopped in to buy some peppers for the soup. I couldn’t remember exactly what kind or how many I used the first time I made it, so I just bought a a little of everything and ended up with an extra poblano. When in doubt of what to do with a small amount of an extra ingredient, always use it as a stuffing in some sort of meat! Or, at least, that’s my motto.

I am quickly making my way through the canister of cornmeal I bought recently and specifically for my yiayia’s plasto and polenta (sidenote: I didn’t like polenta the few times I had it, but I think I would like it if I prepared it myself and made it firmer, as I think the dislike arises primarily from an issue of texture), but I have made neither. I have, however, enjoyed experimenting more with cornmeal, and decided I would experiment some more tonight, using the cornmeal as a crust for the chicken. This was a great change from breadcrumbs and became nice and crunchy when baked in the oven.

I had a nice picture of the chicken before slicing into it, in all its crispity crunchity glory but of course as I was trying to transfer it to my computer I somehow managed to delete it altogether. Whoops!

2 chicken breast halves
1 poblano pepper
1/3 cup shredded or sliced sharp cheddar
1 egg, beaten and mixed with a Tbsp of water (buttermilk would also be great here)
1/3 cup cornmeal
salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne to taste

Preheat your broiler and then broil the poblano for a couple minutes, turning it once the skin has blistered and blackened. Alternatively, you can put the pepper right on your stovetop gas burner. After all sides of the pepper look charred, put it in a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to let the pepper cool.

Preheat the oven to 400. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean up) and place a rack/cooling rack on top of it. Spray the rack with cooking spray.

When the pepper is cool enough to handle, peel the skin off (it should come off easily at this point) and dice the poblano. Slit a pocket into the chicken breasts. Stuff the pocket with the diced poblano and cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.

Combine the cornmeal with salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper to your tastes. Carefully dip the chicken breasts into the egg wash, and then dredge in the cornmeal mixture.

Place the chicken on the rack and spray the top with cooking oil. Bake about 20 minutes or until done, turning once in the middle of cooking.

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